Jon Hicks | |
---|---|
Nationality | British |
Occupation | Journalist |
Known for | Journalism |
Jon Hicks was the former editor-in-chief of the UK edition of the Official Xbox Magazine between 2007 and 2014. [1] He wrote the first published review of Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV . [2]
Official Xbox Magazine is a monthly video game magazine which started in November 2001 around the launch of the original Xbox. A preview issue was released at E3 2001, with another preview issue in November 2001. The magazine was bundled with a disc that included game demos, preview videos and trailers, and other content, such as game or Xbox updates and free gamerpics. The discs also provided the software for the Xbox 360 for backward compatibility of original Xbox games for those without broadband and Xbox Live access. As of January 2012, OXM no longer includes a demo disc. In mid-2014, the U.S. version was merged into the UK version on the website, which lasted only a few months until Future plc announced that it was closing its website along with all the other websites that Future has published, including Edge and Computer and Video Games. In February 2015, OXM and all of Future's video game websites were redirected into GamesRadar. The magazine itself continues to be published in the UK, US and Australia.
Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, and as successor to BMG Interactive, a dormant video game publisher of which Take-Two had previously acquired the assets. Founding members of the company were Sam and Dan Houser, Terry Donovan and Jamie King, who worked for Take-Two at the time, and of which the Houser brothers were previously executives at BMG Interactive. Co-founders Sam and Dan Houser head the studio as president and vice-president for creative, respectively.
Grand Theft Auto IV is an action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles on 29 April 2008, and for Microsoft Windows on 2 December 2008. It is the eleventh title in the Grand Theft Auto series, and the first main entry since 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Set within the fictional Liberty City, the single-player story follows a war veteran, Niko Bellic, and his attempts to escape his past while under pressure from loan sharks and mob bosses. The open world design lets players freely roam Liberty City, consisting of three main islands.
Hicks previously worked on the launch of Windows Vista: The Official Magazine and has written for many print publications including PC Gamer , PC Format , GamesMaster , PC Zone , SFX , Edge , PC Plus , .net , Windows XP Magazine , Stuff , and The Mail on Sunday .
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries. The magazine features news on developments in the video game industry, previews of new games, and reviews of the latest popular PC games, along with other features relating to hardware, mods, "classic" games and various other topics.
PC Format was a computer magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future plc, and licensed to other publishers in countries around the world. In publication between 1991 and 2015, it was part of Future plc's Format series of magazines that include articles about games, entertainment and how to get the most out of the platform. Despite the occasional mention of alternatives, PC Format takes the term 'PC' to mean a Microsoft Windows-based computer.
GamesMaster was a monthly multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future plc in the United Kingdom. As of 2012, it was the biggest selling multi-format video games magazine in the United Kingdom, outselling its sister publication Edge. Along with sister magazine GamesTM, it ceased print in November 2018.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is an action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 26 October 2004 for PlayStation 2, and on 7 June 2005 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox. A high definition remastered version received a physical release for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on 30 June 2015 and 1 December 2015, respectively. It is the seventh title in the Grand Theft Auto series, and the first main entry since 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It was released on the same day as the handheld game Grand Theft Auto Advance for Game Boy Advance. On 8 June 2018, the game was added to the Xbox One Backward Compatible library.
GMR was a monthly magazine on video games that was published by Ziff-Davis — the publisher of such magazines as PC Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and Computer Gaming World. GMR was launched in February 2003, being sold in only the Electronics Boutique (EB) chain of video game stores. The magazine was unusual among multiconsole magazines in that it covered PC as well as console games, as well as its minimalistic cover art, and, in its last few months, its shift in focus toward promotion of less mainstream titles. It lasted exactly two years, as the 25th and last issue was the February 2005 edition.
Edge is a multi-format video game magazine published by Future plc in the United Kingdom, which publishes 13 issues of the magazine per year.
Computer and Video Games was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website was launched in 1999 and closed in February 2015. CVG was the longest-running video game media brand in the world.
The Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) is a proprietary game engine developed by RAGE Technology Group, a division of Rockstar Games' Rockstar San Diego studio. Since its first game, Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis in 2006, the engine has been used by Rockstar Games' internal studios to develop games for macOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, including Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3, Grand Theft Auto V, and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Trevor Philips is a fictional character in Grand Theft Auto V, a video game in the Grand Theft Auto series made by Rockstar Games. He appears as one of the three main protagonists, alongside Michael De Santa and Franklin Clinton. He is played by actor Steven Ogg, who provided the voice and motion capture for the character.
Euphoria is a game animation engine created by NaturalMotion based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis, NaturalMotion's proprietary technology for animating 3D characters on-the-fly "based on a full simulation of the 3D character, including body, muscles and motor nervous system". Instead of using predefined animations, the characters' actions and reactions are synthesized in real-time; they are different every time, even when replaying the same scene. While it is common for current video games to use limp "ragdolls" for animations generated on the fly, Euphoria employs a more complex method to animate the entirety of physically bound objects within the game environment. The engine was to be used in an Indiana Jones game that has since been cancelled. According to its web site, Euphoria runs on the Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, iOS and Android platforms and is compatible with all commercial physics engines.
Grand Theft Auto IV is an open world, action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. Upon its release on 29 April 2008 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Grand Theft Auto IV generated controversy. The game's depiction of violence received mass commentary from journalists and government officials, occasionally being referred to as a "murder simulator". The ability to drive under the influence of alcohol in the game also received criticism, resulting in a request for the ESRB to change the game's rating. Similarly, some gameplay features were censored for the Australian and New Zealand versions of the game, though these censors were subsequently removed. Several crimes that were committed following the game's release, such as murder and sexual violence, were attributed to the perpetrators' experience with the game, generating further controversy. Former attorney Jack Thompson, known for his campaigns against the series, heavily criticised Grand Theft Auto IV prior to its release, filing lawsuits against parent company Take-Two Interactive, and threatening to ban distribution of the game if some gameplay features were not removed. The game also generated further controversy and lawsuits from city officials and organisations.
Total PC Gaming was a monthly magazine published by Imagine Publishing, launched in 2007 it ran until March 2010. The magazine featured videogame industry news, game reviews, hardware reviews, and sections dedicated to fans of retro gaming and Massively multiplayer online games.
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned is the first of two episodic expansion packs developed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows versions of Grand Theft Auto IV, developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was first released for Xbox 360 on 17 February 2009, and for PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows on 13 April 2010. It is the third expansion pack in the Grand Theft Auto series, and the twelfth release overall.
Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony is the second of the two episodic expansion packs available for the PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 versions of Grand Theft Auto IV, developed by Rockstar North. It was first released for Xbox 360 on 29 October 2009, before then being released for PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows on 13 April 2010. It is the fourth expansion pack in the Grand Theft Auto series and the 14th release in the series.
Grand Theft Auto is an action-adventure video game developed by DMA Design and published by BMG Interactive. It was first released in Europe and North America in October 1997 for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. It was later re-released on 12 December 1997 in Europe and 30 June 1998 in North America for the PlayStation. It is the first instalment of the Grand Theft Auto series, to be followed by 1999's Grand Theft Auto 2. The series, which has led to five main entries and several special edition games over 16 years, has sold more than 150 million units as of September 2013. The story follows a group of criminals in three fictionalised versions of US cities as they perform bank robberies, assassinations, and other illegal activities for their respective crime syndicates.
Grand Theft Auto V is an action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released in September 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, in November 2014 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and in April 2015 for Microsoft Windows. It is the first main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series since 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas, based on Southern California, the single-player story follows three criminals and their efforts to commit heists while under pressure from a government agency. The open-world design lets players freely roam San Andreas' open countryside and the fictional city of Los Santos, based on Los Angeles.
An approximate 1,000-person team developed Grand Theft Auto V, an action-adventure video game, over several years. Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto V in September 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, in November 2014 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and in April 2015 for Microsoft Windows, as the fifteenth entry in the Grand Theft Auto series. Development began soon after Grand Theft Auto IV's release and was led by Rockstar North's core 360-person team, who collaborated with several other international Rockstar Games studios. The team considered the game a spiritual successor to many of their previous projects like Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3. After its unexpected announcement in 2011, the game was fervently promoted with press showings, cinematic trailers, viral marketing strategies and special editions. Its release date, though subject to several delays, was widely anticipated.
User modification, or modding of games in the open-world sandbox Grand Theft Auto series is a popular trend in the PC gaming community. These unofficial modifications are made by altering gameplay logic and asset files within a user's game installation, and can drastically change the gameplay experience: from replacing the player's character model with a fire breathing cat, to spawning zombies throughout the map. Frequently created by anonymous 'modders', modifications are presented in the form of downloadable files or archives. Third-party software has been indispensable for building Grand Theft Auto mods, due to the lack of official editing tools from the developer, Rockstar Games. Mods for Grand Theft Auto are generally developed for use on the PC versions of the games, since the platform does not prevent modifications to installed software; however, similar content for console versions does exist to an extent.
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